Sleepless in Castelia
by a sea of sound
Summary: Hugh stumbles upon the girl with the broken smile on his late-night train at the eleventh hour. —Hugh, Rosa AU.


It was just one of those days.

The office was slow. The subway was fast. Hugh barely noticed the way the train rocked this way and that as its passengers swayed to its uneasy rhythm. It was the kind of dance only those who have been exposed to it could master; Hugh never felt so lucky in his whole life. Going to and from Driftveil and Castelia daily was not something he minded. He had grown accustomed to it rather quickly, and he was used to the occasional peculiar character he'd see on the train during the nights coming home. Working from early morning to late night was quite tedious, and it visibly took a toll on the young man. Hugh wore suitcases under each one of his eyes with all of their heavy baggage, though after a while he barely noticed or chose not to take notice of his drawn appearance. He worked a seven-day schedule, as he only recently graduated from the University of Castelia and was currently going to law school to study Pokémon Law, and the tuition was not exactly cheap. So he'd decided that he couldn't bother his hard-working, middle-class parents to ask for the wherewithal to pay for his education; his pride would never allow him to do such a thing. Besides, they were already paying a lot of money to send his little sister to private high school.

Tonight, the subway was empty. This was not the slightest bit peculiar to him, as Sundays were never busy at all. He sat in the middle of a row of stained orange seats made of plastic, gum that was probably older than him hanging off of every surface. The music blasting from his cellphone, into his headphones and therefore into his ears played noisily in the back of his mind as his eyes fluttered closed. He felt acutely the train coming to a stop, and momentarily his red eyes opened to check where he was. The electronic sign above the sliding doors read Nimbasa Gear Station in red and green lettering, hurting his tired head.

A young woman stepped onto the train, sitting down two seats over from Hugh. He stared at her out of his periphery, wondering what she was doing this late at night. Usually no one ever boarded the train at eleven pm, except for the destitute, searching for some place to temporarily call home. The other two people on the cart didn't stir or glance up as she entered, too focused on getting their night's share of sleep. The woman was crying, her fingers fiddling with the silky fabric of the wedding gown she wore, which was frayed at the ends and slightly dirty, yet it still held radiance. Hugh figured she'd been shedding tears for quite some time, as her eyes were completely bloodshot and dry, her face red and streaked. Hugh lifted his hand to change the song on his phone, or perhaps to pause, letting the silence make itself comfortable. He caught a glimpse of the tiny packet of tissues his mother had placed in his work bag, figuring that he could finally put them to use. Taking them out of his bag and letting the thin plastic conform to his hand, Hugh gingerly stretched his arm out toward her, the tissues waiting in his palm. She finally looked up and he saw that her eyes were blue—in fact, _very_ blue, more so because of the red that rimmed around them. Her gaze flitted to the tissues in his hand, staring at them hesitantly before deciding that they weren't going to burst and blow up in her face. A delicate hand stopped its fidgeting as she took them from him, mumbling a nearly inaudible "thank you" before loudly blowing her nose. Still, no one roused from their sleep.

Hugh, still armed with headphones, frowned as he saw her lips move yet no sound come from them. "What was that?" he asked, pulling them out of his ears and watching her curiously.

The woman raised her head questioningly. "Oh, I just said thank you."

Feeling rather awkward, Hugh blinked at her before shrinking into his seat slightly. "Oh! Uh, you're welcome I guess." He scratched his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. She turned away, her expression morose and pensive.

The train whizzed on in the contemplative silence, steadily moving closer and closer to Castelia City. Sleep nearly overtook him before he noticed that she had finished the tissues he'd given to her and that what seemed to be a fresh wave of tears washed over her face. Pity coursed through him as he watched her shoulders subtly shake; for some odd reason, he felt concern for this poor girl; after all, what kind of person stumbles onto a deserted subway train possibly riddled with predators in the wee hours of the night? She hurriedly wiped her nose as a thin stream of mucous flowed past her nostril, taking a deep interrupted breath.

"Erm, sorry i don't have anymore tissues," he said awkwardly, rubbing his neck. At the sound of his voice her eyes widened a bit, as if she'd forgotten he was there.

"It—it's OK. You didn't have to, really," she replied, smiling slightly. Hugh was momentarily stricken by how beautiful she was, despite her tattered veil and makeup-run face. Her hair appeared to still be fixed in what it was supposed to be; a complex bun of sorts with little micro braids wrapped around it.

"Well, my mom always stuffs this kind of thing into my bag when I visit home, and I never use them anyway, so it's really no problem."

"You're probably wondering about all this." She lifted her hand and lazily gestured toward her dress, biting her bottom lip that looked red and swelled.

"No, I tend not to get curious when random people show up in my night train wearing wedding dresses." It was a light attempt at humor, but the girl seemed to appreciate it, so Hugh stopped beating himself up for letting it slide. "I, uh, I'm Hugh, by the way, if that makes this any less weird."

"I'm Rosa," she introduced, pulling at a stray fiber of cloth.

"I mean, you don't have to tell me anything or whatever, in spite of my mild to intense curiosity over your current situation." Hugh didn't want to seem too forward, though he wanted to know what this woman's story was. Her features remained downcast despite his weak attempts at lightening the mood.

Rosa took a deep breath before beginning. "To put it in the simplest terms, I was left at the altar." A flash of pain very briefly crossed her expression, and Hugh feared she would start crying again. "We've been dating for a long time, except he ultimately left me for my best friend, nonetheless." She bitterly chuckled, wiping away the tears that formed at the corners of her eyes, and Hugh frowned. "I'm not mad, though…Just disappointed is all. Three years down the drain, which is how I ended up here on a train to Castelia City, at eleven pm on a Sunday."

"I'm really sorry that happened to you, Rosa," he said empathetically, not really knowing how else to react.

"I am too, you know… I really did love him, which sucks so badly. Curtis really was a sweet guy. I know he wasn't trying to hurt me, and neither was Yancy, but… I guess it only makes sense this worked out like some kind of sappy romantic comedy. They're both actors, after all…I guess normal people can't be wedged into the scheme of things."

After a few short-lived moments of awkward silence, Hugh cleared his throat. "Well, uh, if it makes you feel any better, I got the shit beaten out of me by my ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. I was pretty shit-faced and threw rocks at her window while she was apparently doing it with him. I was seventeen." He chuckled, feeling nauseous from the memory. It was not something he liked to think about, as it was quite the harrowing and not to mention humiliating experience.

"Actually, that _does _make me feel better." Rosa chewed on her lip to keep from laughing out loud, her shoulders shaking for a whole other reason. Although her own humiliating experience happened just mere hours ago, she was barely able to shove it to the back of her mind. Being depressed just wasn't her thing, though later, when she got home, she would probably revert back to sobbing her eyes out and never getting out of bed.

At least for now, she'd allow this stranger to make her smile.

A beep resounded through the area.

_Arriving in Castelia Road Train Station_

"Well, this is my stop." Hugh stood, grabbing his bag and slinging it over his chest. The smile on Rosa's face immediately fell, as a strong feeling of loneliness overcame her. As soon as Hugh stepped off of the train and onto the platform, she hurried toward the door, her hands filled with frilly fabric.

"Uh, Hugh, w-wait!" she called, standing in the arch of the automatic door. He turned around with a questioning look on his face.

"Yeah?"

"I'll—I'll go with you."

She didn't know why she let him hold her hand as she stepped down from the train, or why she even went with him. All she knew was that, perhaps, it was only fate for her to be on that particular train at that particular hour.


End file.
